Opinion Piece - Blog

The kids aren’t all right

In early June, Ben Benstead joined CLES for a week of work experience. Ben is a sixth form student from Hebburn attending St Joseph’s Catholic Academy. Here he shares some of his personal thoughts on how the experiences of young people are shaping our political agenda and, in particular, the rise of Reform.

The youth are losing faith in the establishment.

Scottish policy and practice update: June 25

This update is part of a regular series of rundowns of policy developments and reports on our work in Scotland, by CLES Senior Researcher and Scotland lead, Naomi Mason.

Winds of change?

The last few weeks have been full with events and meetings focused on renewable energy here in Scotland. As the push to grow the renewables sector and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels increases, so too do conversations about who can and should benefit from Scotland’s natural resources. Luckily, we are “blessed” with abundance in this regard – it is always windy somewhere in Scotland!

Anchor networks – the delivery engine of Total Place 2.0?

It’s time to break free from the siloed, centralised straitjacket of public spending. That’s the bold message from the Institute for Government’s latest report, which urges a radical rethink of how money flows through public services.

Instead of ringfenced budgets and top-down controls, the report – The Case for Total Place 2.0 – calls for a return to joined-up local decision-making, where councils, the NHS and other local bodies collaborate to meet the real needs of their communities.
“a rare win-win that today’s system urgently needs”
The OG Total Place – an ambitious initiative first launched by Gordon Brown’s Labour government in 2009 – empowered local agencies in 13 pilot areas to pool resources, tackle complex problems together, and deliver smarter, more human solutions. The results? Better outcomes for residents and long-term savings – a rare win-win that today’s system urgently needs to rediscover.

Still fighting for the future of Wales

10 years of the Well-being of Future Generations Act in Wales

This is the first in a short series of blogs to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. This opening blog, from CLES’s Sarah Evans, focusses on the implementation of the Act, and considers what has worked and what have been the challenges. For those not familiar with the Act, it sets out Wales’s vision for a sustainable future and requires public bodies in Wales to consider the long-term impact of their decisions, work collaboratively with people, communities and each other, and to take action to prevent persistent challenges such as poverty, health inequalities and climate change.

When the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act was first implemented I was working at Glyndwr University and I remember being inspired about how it could shape our local and regional public services.

Backing local food with public spend

This article originally appeared on LBC Opinion.

With a global trade war looming, and the UK relying on imports for roughly 40% of its food, we are reminded – once again – of the fragility of our reliance on global supply chains. In that light, the government’s pledge that at least 50% of public sector food spending – worth £5bn annually – will go to UK suppliers seems all the more relevant. But how realistic is that promise? And what would it take to make it happen?

Even The Archers, the world’s long-running soap opera, has picked up on the issue. Farmers are struggling, squeezed by supermarket giants and rising costs. Meanwhile, more families than ever rely on food bankschildhood obesity is soaring, and the climate crisis demands urgent action to rethink how we produce and distribute food. Yet, instead of investing in local supply chains, public money continues to flow to large national suppliers.

Can Community Wealth Building change the conversation?

This article orignally appeared on the Reform Scotland blog.

There has been some excitement in the Scottish policy landscape over the last few weeks with the introduction of (a long awaited) Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill. While it may not sound that exciting, as the first legislation of its kind in the world, this is actually a big deal.

But what is Community Wealth Building, and why does it matter? I am going to use this article to set out the nuts and bolts, explore the implications of this new legislation and look to the future. First, though, I’ll explain who the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) are. CLES are the national organisation for local economies. We have been working for nearly 40 years supporting places to understand how they can make their local economies more resilient. We pioneered the development of Community Wealth Building in the UK, following on from work in the US and, nowadays, we work across the UK and Europe to support places to take a Community Wealth Building lens to their local economies. We work with places to instigate and enable change and are proactive in supporting them to develop economic strategies and activities which suit their challenges and opportunities and which deliver for their people. Here in Scotland we have been active for many years as Community Wealth Building has become more established, first in our places and now in government legislation.
“economic growth alone cannot be relied on”
Before I get into Community Wealth Building, I’ll set the scene for why we need to take a new approach. We have an economy which currently prioritises economic growth, delivered via external private capital. We are told that more growth will reduce inequality and pay for public services. Yet, despite our relentless pursuit of growth, in recent decades the UK has seen dramatic rises in poverty levels, business uncertainty and an escalating climate crisis. It is clear, then, that economic growth alone cannot be relied on to tackle these issues.

Let the people in

This article orignally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

Our communities have a challenge with trust (or, rather, the lack of it). As cynicism about the state grows, particularly as “awful April” begins to bite, people’s sense of disconnection from politics and the economy is growing. But, make no mistake, this disconnection is not about apathy: it’s about powerlessness.

We’ve all been in those rooms where people are airing their grievances about public services. The bins not emptied, the potholes left unfilled, the care for a loved one delayed, the SEND child unsupported, the cemeteries unloved.

Scottish policy and practice update: Mar 25

This update is part of a regular series of rundowns of policy developments and reports on our work in Scotland, by CLES Senior Researcher and Scotland lead, Naomi Mason.

Building on the Bill

It isn’t often that economic development is exciting – or at least that’s what my friends tell me when I talk about my job. But, for those in the community wealth building space, the long awaited Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill has been hotly anticipated. So, when it was released last week, it felt like a pivotal moment. Whatever else may be said, this legislation remains the first of its kind in the world – certainly something to be celebrated.

Squeezing the zones to the max

This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

If nothing else, special economic zones (SEZs) are resilient. Spatial zoning – offering tax incentives, simplified regulations and other benefits to attract inward investment and deliver growth – have been a mainstay in central government policy in the UK since the 1980s and have survived the turbulent transitions from Boris Johnson’s Levelling Up agenda all the way through to today.
“a potential lifeline”
SEZs can be diverse in actual policy form – although most readers will recognise their current incarnations: freeports, greenports, investment zones and enterprise zones – but they all have a shared aim to stimulate local economies, thus offering a potential lifeline to many local authorities who struggle to find ways to do so.

Devolution white paper risks growing nowhere

This article orignally appeared in the Local Government Chronicle.

The growth of England’s economy is at the heart of the government’s vision for devolution. But this is a missed opportunity for Labour to widen the remit of devolution: to see it as not only a chance to rebuild trust in democracy but take a more radical approach to economic change – change that rewires our economic system so that we are less focused on simply increasing the rate of GDP for UK plc and more on increasing the flow, circulation and ownership of wealth in our places.

Whilst more organized than the previous government’s approach, the essential subtext of English devolution remains intact: Westminster will hand over power and resources to mayors – as long as they enlist their regions in the battle to ‘relight the fire’ of GDP growth for UK plc.

Scottish policy and practice update: Dec 24

This update is part of a regular series of rundowns of policy developments and reports on our work in Scotland, by CLES Senior Researcher and Scotland lead, Naomi Mason.

Looking back, looking forwards and taking stock

As I near my one-year anniversary of joining CLES as our lead for Scotland, I’ve been looking back at what has happened over the last 12 months. It has been quite a year, with political turbulence in Holyrood, Westminster and across the world, not to mention the continued global instability in our climate and economies. So – as the Scottish Budget was announced last week – I couldn’t help but reflect on both how interlinked we all are and how our local economies are profoundly impacted by global change.
“power and politics are fundamental to change”
I’m reminded that, by building flexibility, community wealth building makes our places stronger and more resilient to the fluctuations of wider economic systems. But this takes time, effort and persistence. It also takes political will and power. I’ve previously written about the opportunity that the forthcoming community wealth building legislation could bring to Scotland, and the many forms of power which our rural communities can tap into, or struggle against, so I won’t labour the points here. Suffice to say, power and politics are fundamental to change.
“bringing power from Holyrood down to our local places”
What we don’t talk about often enough, however, is the relinquishing of power. When we talk about devolution, transferring power away from Westminster to the nations or regions of the UK, we often focus on that first step away from the centre. What we talk less about is the stages beyond. Often, bringing power from Holyrood down to our local places seems to be a step too far here in Scotland. There were high hopes for this to happen over the last 25 years of the Scottish parliament, but how well it has truly benefited Scotland’s local democracy is not clear, a point which was beautifully articulated by Bill Howat in an article published last week. And there is a further question: even if power had reached our councils to a greater degree…what then? Are they even the best mechanism for delivering local democracy and decision making? Opinions differ. According to the results of a Democracy Matters consultation earlier this year, the answer is no: there is an appetite for more community-led decision making and power.

Community wealth (and health) building

This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

The purpose of our economy should be to generate good lives and wellbeing for all, and, in CLES’s final Community Wealth Building Conversation at the end of November, we got to hear first-hand about the myriad ways in which this progressive approach to economic development is helping to deliver better health outcomes for people and communities, through the actions of key anchor institutions. Three things stood out from the conversation.

First, there is growing evidence of impact.

Much to learn from Celtic wealth building

This article originally appeared in the MJ.

CLES’s most recent community wealth building conversation event, chaired by Huw Thomas, Director of Finance at Hywel Dda University, introduced the idea of “small country governments” and the pragmatic role that our Celtic governments are playing in tackling key challenges using community wealth building approaches. They are well placed to do this, the discussion concluded, because they are embedded in their places. But achieving public sector reform must go hand in hand with investing in the development of thriving local communities.

The discussion brought together expertise from across the Celtic nations, including Miriam Brett, Co-Director of Future Economy Scotland, Rhiannon Hardiman, the Policy Lead for Climate, Nature, Economy & Food Future at the Generations Commissioner for Wales, Mary McManus, Regional Manager for Living Wage Northern Ireland and Liam Quinn, Chief Executive of the Waterford Area Partnership.

Making the missions happen

This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

Done properly, community wealth-building can provide the Government with a means to deliver their election pledge of change and to maximise the impact of that change on people and places. That was the clear message from the first of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies’ (CLES) Community Wealth Building Conversation events earlier in the month.

Labour needs living standards to improve and, in last month’s Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves again made the case for economic growth, wealth creation and opportunity for all, arguing that these were the only way to deliver that goal.

Powering up our rural communities

This article originally appeared in The Municipal Journal.

Imagine living in a place which owned its own wind turbine. Where the village shop was owned and run by local people. Where a network of local social enterprises collaborated to bid for contracts from the public sector. Where all residents felt empowered to participate in developing an action plan for their community. Where the community owned the land their houses were built on, made sure new homes were affordable and were not sold as second homes. Is this a fantasy village? Possibly. But the fact is that rural places across the UK are already delivering all of these constituent parts. The next – and crucial – step is bringing them together.

The second of CLES’s Community Wealth Building Conversations, last week, focused on how the approach works in a rural context. One of the challenges frequently levelled at the community wealth building movement is that it is an urban-centric and -focused method of economic development. When the vast majority of the UK is rural, ensuring that community wealth building can be delivered across all our regions is important. We know that many of the more visible challenges facing urban communities – like poverty – can be masked in rural places. Not only this, but often the lack of rural infrastructure can compound poverty and exacerbate the challenges facing people in their places.
“opportunities […] can be present as well ”
Our panellists at the event – Neil McInroy, Global Lead for Community Wealth Building for The Democracy Collaborative, and Cllr Lisa Brown, Deputy Leader for Cumberland Council – opened the proceedings with provocations highlighting some of the challenges our rural places face. Transport, housing and service delivery all got a mention, but they also noted the opportunities that can be present as well – in energy, food and tackling issues like climate change. Ownership of land was also noted as a key theme as the inequality of who does and who doesn’t own the ground we stand on clearly demonstrates the extraction of wealth from our places.